so many good books! Ghosts A Natural History : 500 Years of Searching for Proof Roger Clarke #ghosts

can't wait for this:Her Past Unchained ‘The Secret History of Wonder Woman,’ by Jill Lepore #jilllepore #wonderwoman

The Kills by Richard House is what i shall read next...

LJ Reviews 2014 May #1

House's (Uninvited) thousand-page epic, first published in Britain as four stand-alone ebooks (Sutler; The Massive; The Kill; The Hit) and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, is now collected in one massive omnibus. Modeled after Roberto Bolaño's labyrinthine 2666, the novel blends the geopolitical machinations of an espionage thriller with DeLilloesque levels of conspiracy and metafiction. In the first book, a government contractor known as Sutler goes on the lam when $53 million earmarked for rebuilding Iraq disappears with him. The Massive serves as a prolog, focusing on the American civilians who work at an Iraqi burn pit before Sutler arrives. The third book concerns a text called The Kill, referenced by characters in the first two volumes, about a pair of brothers who read about a fictional murder and re-create it, beginning a complex loop of art imitating life. The final book, The Hit, attempts to tie the strands together, as a German diplomat's sister-in-law takes up the search for Sutler. It's tough to summarize this book succinctly and equally tough to forge through in places, so dense is the writing, and might be best considered in its original form as four separate volumes. The work is also intended to be interactive; readers can find supplemental audio and video material on the publisher's website, though the extras aren't essential to the story. VERDICT House's doorstop of a tome demands considerable attention and patience from readers, and those prepared to offer it will find subtle intertextual rewards. Others will be frustrated by the sudden narrative shifts among each volume and the deliberate lack of resolution. Recommended for those who wished their John le Carré came more postmodern and surreal. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]—Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

[Page 66]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC

What is the difference between the aristocratic and merely expensive? Huntsman

i'll be reading this next: Fractured Times Culture and Society in the Twentieth Century by E.J. Hobsbawm

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place: Julie Berry ...i just put on reserve at NYPL...

just re-read this:The Accident A Novel Chris Pavone,great!

LJ Reviews 2013 December #1

Pavone's second novel (after his Edgar Award-winning thriller The Expats) follows several people in the publishing industry as they handle a manuscript that promises tremendous personal gain but, as some soon learn, at risk of death. Isabel Reed, a divorced literary agent, has received a manuscript that promises to be a blockbuster. If true, the book will destroy the career of wealthy media mogul Charles Wolfe, about to launch a political career. He is prepared to have his henchman, Berlin cultural attaché and rogue CIA agent Hayden Gray, kill anyone who gets in his way. Jeff Fielder, also divorced and long enamored of Isabel, is an editor in need of a career-changing book. His boss, deeply in debt, faces a buyout by Wolfe's company. A subsidiary rights director has stolen a copy of the manuscript and heads to Hollywood with visions of grandeur. All are in great danger, not to mention the anonymous author, who may have to "die" twice to survive! VERDICT Fans of popular fiction (not just thriller lovers) and all those interested in the inner workings of the publishing world will have a terrific time reading this engaging thriller, driven by compelling portraits of desperate characters, each of whom will come to wonder if the manuscript in hand is worth the cost. [See Prepub Alert, 9/30/13.]—Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

[Page 91]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals 

on reserve at #nypl ‘Eichmann Before Jerusalem,’ by Bettina Stangneth

quote of the day:The suit that we wear was, in essence, invented by Beau Brummell –" an obsessive, highly strung, socially insecure, thin-skinned aesthete, snob and genius. And, of course, an Etonian." Hilarious!

Vickers Tactical: H&K MP7

The Search for Anne Perry by Drayton, Joanne is what i'm reading now; fascinating...

LIBRARY JOURNAL

LJ Reviews 2014 August #1

Drayton (design, Unitec Inst. of Technology, New Zealand; Ngaio Marsh) has written a sympathetic and compelling literary biography of crime writer Anne Perry. The book begins in 1994 with the frantic moments that sparked the revelation that Perry was Juliet Hulme, convicted in 1954, along with her friend Pauline Parker, for the murder of Parker's mother. The crime was the subject of Peter Jackson's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. Drayton expertly weaves the events of Perry's childhood throughout the book while narrating the adult life of Perry as she struggles to find success as a writer. The author shows Perry to be a deeply religious, thoughtful, and caring individual who can never forget what she did when she was 15. Drayton briefly discusses each of Perry's novels, touching on how the themes and ethical dilemmas in the books reflect issues and concerns in Perry's personal life. A tendency to skim over details, as well as a lack of critical assessment leave the work feeling one sided at times. Nonetheless, an enjoyable read. VERDICT Perry fans are sure to love this authorized biography of the author. Well written and quickly paced, it reads like an absorbing story.—Stefanie Hollmichel, Univ. of St. Thomas Law Lib., Minneapolis

[Page 94]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC

what i'm reading next: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker

Dominatrix of the Week: the great Alexandra Snow,@DominaSnow check out her great video,more at:alexandrasnow.com

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” by Jeff Hobbs is on my reserve list at NYPL

The Innovators, BY Walter Isaacson,is a book i want to read

about to start The Secret Place by Tana French

LIBRARY JOURNAL

LJ Reviews 2014 April #2

A year after the body of swoon-worthy Chris Harper was dumped at St. Kilda's, a girls' school in a Dublin suburb, student Holly Mackey gives Det. Stephen Moran a photo of Chris she's found with the words "I know who killed him" inscribed on the back. From the multi-award-winning and New York Times best-selling French.

[Page 56]. (c) Copyright 2014.

what is the difference between the aristocratic and merely expensive? hermes

A Spy Among Friends,by Ben Macintyre is what i'm reading now...

from the book:"Eccentricity is one of those English traits that look like frailty but mask a concealed strength;individuality disguised as oddity"

CONSUMED By David Cronenberg,it's sounds like a wild book...

The Long Way Home By Louise Penny, is what i'm reading now ,really enjoying it

what is the difference between the aristocratic and merely expensive? Penn Station,NYC

if you love Ebola,then this is the book for you:The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place Berry, Julie,is on my reserve list at NYPL

VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES REVIEWS

VOYA Reviews 2014 August
Imagine being a student at a girls' boarding school in 1800s England when suddenly, during the weekly Sunday dinner, the headmistress and her brother drop dead from veal poisoning. Interestingly enough, this alarming event does not cause sorrow, but merely stimulates a wave of curiosity as students wonder who could have perpetrated such a ghastly crime? In addition, if word gets out that Mrs. Plackett is dead, the students will all be sent home, so they all decide to cover up the two murders. This becomes most tricky as neighbors and other random visitors constantly stop by. Then, there is the dilemma of what to do about the party Mrs. Plackett is expected to attend. Therefore, until the students solve the identity of the headmistress's killer, life will be comprised of concocting clever stories and lies, with one of the students actually impersonating the old lady, and the rest stalling and redirecting nosy visitors This delightfully zany scenario embodies the premise of The Scandalous Sisterhood. While beautifully written with rich vocabulary, charming detail, spunky dialogue, and plucky heroines, this Victorian murder mystery farce tends to drag along as the feisty young girls devise madcap plans for how to conceal a double murder. For this reason, recommend it to patient readers who do not need constant white-knuckle suspense and can appreciate the gentle unfolding of a mostly sweet tale sprinkled with just a smattering of edginess and a few plot twists.—Suzanne Osman 3Q 3P M Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.http://www.julieberrybooks.com/

about to finish: The Fire A Novel By Neville, Katherine

just started:Modern Poets By Giraldi, Lilio Gregorio, 1479-1552

from:Dean Keith Simonton's Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity

(1) Creative geniuses “harbor an impressive array of intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic interests.” This breadth and variety of interests gives them the content on which to draw analogies, make comparisons. It is their material. (I’d suppose that access to this material would be a differentially significant condition for outstanding creative work in different fields: teenage geniuses would be more likely to occur in music or mathematics than in philosophy or fiction.)
(2) Such individuals are “open to novel, complex, and ambiguous stimuli in their surroundings.” Openness takes their trains of thought to unexpected corners of experience.
(3) Creative geniuses are “capable of defocused attention.” I think of stories about Glenn Gould studying a score, carrying on a phone conversation, and listening to the news all at once — sounds implausible till you think back to how amazingly he could distinguish voices in a fugue. Typically, while creators are working on one problem, or are engaged in an apparently irrelevant activity, they will be carrying around with them another problem in need of a solution. Defocused attention makes creative connections more likely.
(4) Consistent with the above is a flexibility in work habits. It’s characteristic of the highly creative person to have a range of projects going simultaneously, a “network of enterprises.” Darwin was always working on several subjects simultaneously, dipping into “thirty or forty large portfolios” which he kept on labeled shelves, adding memoranda or reviewing them. This flexibility makes it possible to change course quickly and take advantage of lucky breaks and new ideas as they serendipitously present themselves.
(5) “Highly creative people are introverted.” Simonton means by this that, however affable they may be in social settings, they are given to “long hours of solitary contemplation . . . smoking a pipe in an armchair, taking a walk in the woods, engaging absentmindedly in some routine activity.” Social contact, for creative geniuses, is “subordinate to the internal ruminations of their eternally preoccupied minds.” This for Simonton explains why group problem-solving, so-called brainstorming, usually yields such dismal results compared to individual creative work.
(6) Finally, such individuals are usually “independent, autonomous, unconventional, and perhaps even iconoclastic.” They are willing to give unusual, or even preposterous, ideas a fair hearing.

a great artist: Anselm Kiefer